DINNER SWEETS

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 244, 12 October 1918, Page 16

DINNER SWEETS

The subject of desserts was taken by Pr. Florence Keller in her address to women under the auspices of the Workers' Educational Association on Tuesday evening. Desserts, said the speaker, were the cream of the meal, but most people ate enough before then, and sweets were a superfluity. We as a people were living to eat. More than half a woman's wakine hours are apent to satisfy the palate, if we would turn our menue round, said the speaker, we would be in better health, for then we should not eat. the soup, at least. If we study the history of peoples we find that the nearer they live to nature in food as well as housing the stronger they become. The lecturer then touched on fruit* as fowl. Apples should be. cooked without sugar, nnd eaten with cream, which is largely composed of fats; when eaten with milk, it curdles, and is difficult to digest, whereae if eaten with cream it digests quickly. Vegetables take longer to digest: cabbage from four to live hours, carrots longer. Knmara and beets are largely composed of a woody substance, with starch, and take longer, whereas apples only take an hour, and should not hn combined. The speaker pointed out that foods which conflict should not be eaten together. The lectures given had dealt with foods w"hich were composed of the legumes, puch as beans, peas, and lentils, grains and nuts, which were suitable food. When dealing with gTain, which we use. ns porridge, we should put it on the fire and boil for a few minutes, stirring in the meal, the.n remove to a very tiny glimmer of gaH and let dimmer for three hours, or by putting it in a billy of water it could be boiled slowly at night, ami then be heated up easily in the. morning. Cooked in this way it would agree with everyone. Pearl •barley should nbo be used in this manner for a change, as it wns very poor! for children, and wns not heating. To make barley into porridge take a cup of pearl harlt-y, six cups of water and a teaspoonful of salt, and boil for an hour. Then place pot in pan of water, and stew for three or four hours, and it would produce a very good food for children. The advice was given that children should be trained to eat porridge without sugar, ns it was much better for their health. At the close of the lecture the following sweets were handed round the audience, and proved to be very delicinus: — PLI'M prpnrxG. Tor the pudding use pieces of bread dried brown in oven and put through mincer to crush; 1 cup crumbs, 1 cup of granola, 1 cup of raisins, 1 cup of currants. 1 piece of lemon peel chopped fine. J-cup of sugar, 1 egg. 1 tablespoonful of crisco, butter, or oil, pinch of ealt, 1 pint of boiling milk. Mix all the dry in a bowl, with the yolk of the egg. pour over this .mixture the pint of boiling milk, then fold in the white of egg which has been beaten stiff. Put into a greased pudding basin, and steam for three hours.

PRUNE PIES. > Take some prunes and tioil until soft, rub through a colander to remove the stones, sweeten with a little sugar, line a tin plate with pastry, and bake, then fill with the prunes. Make a meringue with white of egg and sugar, and slightly brown. RAISIN PIES. Line a tin plate with pastry and bake; have ready a filling made of raisins which have been boiled in a little water for a quarter of an hour; sweeten with a little sugar, and thicken with cornflour. -Make a .meringue of the white of an egg and powdered sugar; spead evenly over the filling. Bake in a moderate oven until set and nicely browned. SPLIT PEA vSOUP. One cup split peas, 1 large carrot, 1 onion. Take the carrots and onion chopped fine, and place in a saucepan with a tablp.spoonful of butter, and ■brown. Then add the split peas, with 3 pints of water, and boil slowly for two hours; salt to taete.